NAME
authbind-helper - helper program to bind sockets to privileged ports
without root
SYNOPSIS
/usr/lib/authbind/helper addr-hex port-hex <socket
DESCRIPTION
helper is the program used by libauthbind, which is in turn used by
authbind to allow programs which do not or should not run as root to
bind to low-numbered ports in a controlled way. See authbind(1).
It may also be used standalone, i.e. without assistance from authbind.
Its standard input should be a TCP/IP socket, and it should be passed
two arguments.
The arguments are the address and port number, respectively, to which
the caller desires that the socket be bound. They should be hex
strings, without leading 0x, of exactly the right length (8 and 4
digits, respectively), being a pairs of hex digits for each byte in the
address or port number when expressed in network byte order.
helper will not bind to ports 512 and onwards, because programs like
rshd expect these to be used for outgoing connections, so allowing a
user to bind to one of these would open up security hole(s).
EXIT STATUS
helper will exit with code 0 on success.
If possible, helper will return an appropriate errno value as its exit
status. If this is not possible it may exit with status 255 or with an
exit status corresponding to ENOSYS (Function not implemented).
ACCESS CONTROL
See authbind(1) for details of the access control regime implemented by
helper.
SEE ALSO
authbind(1), bind(2)
AUTHOR
authbind and this manpage were written by Ian Jackson. They are
Copyright (C)1998 by him and released under the GNU General Public
Licence; there is NO WARRANTY. See /usr/doc/authbind/copyright and
/usr/doc/copyright/GPL for details.